A Book and Blog about Life

Pacman vs Selfless

I went to the movies in Kiev. First of all, it’s amazing how cheap it is to go to the movies here. I spent about $5 for two tickets, one huge popcorn and two large sodas. In California that would cost me about $40-$50. Nearly 10 times more. It kinda defeats the purpose of making more income when everything costs 10 times more. Of course I had to watch the movie in Ukranian language without subtitles. But as I’ve said before, I’ve learned to figure out the movies without knowing the language and I still enjoy going to movies regardless. Anyhow, on to the point of the blog.

It really isn’t a contest of which movie was better. Pacman – actually the movie title is called Pixels – starring Adam Sandler and Michelle Monaghan, is a silly story of 80’s arcade game fixtures attacking Earth. It was probably the worst movie I’ve ever seen. Granted, given the plot, one shouldn’t expect a Nobel prize winning script, but it was beyond stupid. The nalstalgia of 80s pop culture was kinda cool but hardly made up for the obscenely absurd story and plot. It was the worst of Sandler’s movies ever – and I’m a big fan of his movies. Michelle Monaghan was the only positive of the entire movie. She was simply stunning and hot!

On the other hand, Selfless was an amazingly great film. It combined an intriguing story with great action and suspense. Ryan Reynolds was a stud. Not to give the story away but, essentially, a neurologist figures out how to transfer our brain and identity into another person when we are about to die. So the rich can essentially buy eternal life – or at least an extended life.

I joked to Marina that if I came back in Ryan Reynolds’s body she would probably kiss me too if some crazy person tried to convince her it was me in a different body.

The story may seem a bit far-fetched and even silly, but I asssure you this is a great movie.

Ultimately a rich New Yorker decides to undergo the process when he is near his death. His consciousness is transferred into the body of a younger man played by Ryan Reynolds. As the story goes on, the memories of the two people wrestle with each other, with flashbacks to his original identity creating curiosity and moral delimnas. In the end, the old man ultimately sacrifices his life so the younger man can live his, with his original wife and little daughter. It’s actually a beautiful story filled with a lot of great action and suspense.

About 7 years ago the founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, started a quest to search for immortality by investing hundreds of millions of dollars into companies working in the sector.

It’s an interest moral delimna: even if we could live forever, is it a good thing for us to try to live forever? Besides the practical considerations of over population, etc, what are the implications of humans living for hundreds or even thousand of years – or even forever?

I can’t imagine that would be a good thing for humanity. I personally believe the thing that makes life amazing is our mortality – knowing every day is special and every experience is likely something we may never have again; that love can last forever, or at least our lifetime, makes this journey worth living. I cannot imagine if we lived thousands of years, what would be the implications to relationships, our sense of charity and our selfish tendencies – how they be affected? I think probably not in a good way.

When we know that death is certain, we accept it. We become willing to sacrifice ourselves for others, even our lives. When “immortality” is possible, it makes these sacrifices far less likely. We begin to imagine ourselves like God.

Any world filled with even greater selfishness and “survival at all cost” cannot be a place I’d want to live in. Life is about far more than how many days we can survive or what accomplishments we can achieve (and if we have more days we can accomplish more is the insinuation).

Mortality is a good thing for humanity. It reminds us who we are. How precious our time is. And inevitably, in the end, it always forces us to appreciate the truly important things in life.